Lygia Pape : a multitude of forms /

Lygia Pape (1927-2004) was among Brazil's most gifted 20th-century artists, yet she has been virtually unknown in the US. Lygia Pape: A Multitude of Forms, a 2017 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art--the museum's first ever devoted to the work of a modern or contemporary artist from Latin America--and the beautifully illustrated, informative catalogue that accompanies it rectify this oversight. Organized by Iria Candela, the museum's curator of Latin American art, the exhibition and publication present Pape's work from its beginnings in the concrete and neo-concrete movements of the 1950s to the more radical, embodied, experiential productions to which those movements gave rise. A friend, colleague, and frequent collaborator of Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark, artists much better known in the US if not in Latin America and Europe, Pape created a body of work that ranges from woodcuts to experimental film, and the catalogue's four scholarly yet accessible essays situate that work historically. The volume includes a chronology and two eloquent selections from interviews with Pape. A much-needed and welcome introduction in English to a major artist. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Eduardo de Jesus Douglas, University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill